1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a liquid-crystal display panel and a method of inspecting a liquid-crystal display panel. More particularly, this invention is concerned with a liquid-crystal display panel capable of being inspected for lighting prior to mounting of an IC chip without the necessity of enlarging a portion of the liquid-crystal display panel outside a display region, and a method of inspecting a liquid-crystal display panel.
2. Discussion
In the field of equipment using liquid-crystal display panels, there is a demand for obtaining as large an area of display as possible by minimizing a region outside a display region of a liquid-crystal display panel, within the limited size of an equipment having the liquid-crystal panel mounted thereon.
On the other hand, there is a demand for making a volume occupied by a liquid-crystal display panel and circuits for driving the liquid-crystal display panel as small as possible so as to realize a thin and lightweight equipment in which the liquid-crystal display panel is employed. A chip-on-glass (COG) substrate having an IC chip, which includes drive circuits or the like, mounted on the margin thereof is widely applied for a substrate used to form a liquid-crystal display panel.
For applying the COG substrate having an IC chip, used for drive circuits of the like, mounted on the margin thereof for a substrate for forming a liquid-crystal display panel, and for making the margin mounted with the IC chip, which is a non-display region, as small as possible, a wiring pattern surrounding the IC chip is designed to have a minimum length.
However, as far as this kind of liquid-crystal display panel is concerned, since the wiring pattern surrounding the IC chip is too short, when contact terminals of an inspection instrument used to inspect a liquid-crystal display panel for lighting prior to mounting of an IC chip are brought into contact with lines constituting the writing pattern for the purpose of lighting inspection, sufficient electrical contact cannot be attained. This causes a problem that the lighting inspection becomes hard to do.
The present invention attempts to solve the above problem. An object of the present invention is to provide a liquid-crystal display panel capable of being inspected for lighting prior to mounting of an IC chip even when a wiring pattern surrounding the IC chip on a liquid-crystal substrate is very short, and a method of inspecting a liquid-crystal display panel.